New law

Law 285/2018 was published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 1028 on 3 December 2018 and amends Article 453 b) of the Fiscal Code (Law no. 227/2015) as follows: "building - any construction located above and / or below the ground, regardless of its name or use, and which has one or more rooms that can serve for the shelter of people, of animals, of objects, of products, of materials, of installations, of equipment and others, and its basic structural elements are the walls and the roof, regardless of the materials they are built from, including the wind turbine support towers.”

The new Fiscal Code, prior to this amendment, defined a building without referring to wind turbine support towers and the Ministry of Public Finances has sent confirmations to many taxpayers that these items should not be included in the tax base for building tax. However, under Central Tax Commission Decision no. 5/2014, wind turbine support towers were classified as buildings as defined in Art. 249 par. (5) of the old Fiscal Code (Law no. 571/2003, as subsequently amended). This interpretation of the tax law was then successfully challenged by taxpayers in the Romanian courts, and hence the authorities considered it necessary to amend the relevant tax legislation by means of Law 285/2018.